Selinian Culture
OVERVIEW Selinians...not easy to create a species. There's the species itself, then one has to look at the factors that shaped them, their homeworld, pre-spaceflight history and many other aspects. I've always believed that if you're going to create a species, then you should seriously give thought to their Identity. For example; In the Star Trek universe, we know that Vulcans enjoy Plomeek soup and that every 7 years they have a biological crisis regarding reproduction. That's fine, but how many people want to know more? Do they all have the same hairstyle? What other foods aside from Plomeek soup are there? Are there any Vulcans that break with the conventions and enjoy carnivorous diets? I asked thes kinds of questions when creating the Selinians. I needed to know who they were when they're at home and those times when alone. CULTURAL ASPECTS Selinians are not a peaceful species as Humanity would describe such. But, if you're thinking they are like Klingons, guess again. Selinians are an extremely aggressive species, but have the intellect to control that behaviour. They have much sharper and more comprehensive instincts and intuition then Humans, but are not slaves to such. Selinians have an enormous Mortality rate, as they are the only effective method of controlling their own population and tend towards an attitude of Genetic Imperialism within their species and a favoring of Natural Selection. The Adulthood Rite This ritual sees every Selinian at age 14 in single combat against a creature from the homeworld known as a Ghost Cat, the undisputed Apex Predator of the homeworld. The combatants are matched properly so it's a fair fight, but it is fought naked and with only what weapons are built into one's body. The arena has nothing one can use as a weapon and escape is not possible. Every Selinian goes through this confrontation, without exception. Male, female and irrespective of physical health or condition. Ghost Cats They are extraordinarily dangerous creatures easily the size of a large Tiger from earth, with a naturally occuring metamaterial in their multilayered fur that responds to changes in their nervous system and bioelectrical field. This means that it can shift it's image to appear someplace other than where it truly is, and uses this as a method of hunting in the wild--spooking prey towards it by projecting it's image in an appropriate location. A Ghost Cat's senses are fitting for an Apex Predator. It has four cat-like ears that can all move and swivel independently thus allowing for unparalleled auditory tracking. Eyesight is extremely sharp with high color, pattern, and motion sensitivity with the wide-set eyes allowing precision judging of distance. Olfactory senses are roughly three times better than a Bloodhound's. The Ghost Cat's brain is truly the brain of a pure predator. The olfactory sense has it's own dedicated node and the cycle-rate of the visual sense from eyes to brain is 3 KHz at rest. The auditory areas of the brain are sophisticated and subdivided with each ear having it's own dedicated area with significant tissue networking them in a manner very similar to the Corpus Callosum in the Human brain. Ghost Cats are so aggressive that kittens, who do not open they eyes for fourteen days, engage in rivalry and elimination battles only a few hours after birth. Of a typical litter of seven, within a day or so, three will remain alive having killed off the others. In some cases, the kittens will engage in these battles in the womb and in such occasions it's common for only a single kitten to survive to born.